Robert Olen Butler: Faraway Voices (June 14, 2004)
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Olen Butler talks about tapping into
different points of view and writing "from the place where you dream."

David Bezmozgis: From Toronto With Love (June 3, 2004)
Dave Bezmozgis talks about his sudden literary success and his first collection of stories, a wry and intimate portrait of a Russian-Jewish immigrant family.

Benny Morris: The Lonely Historian (March 25, 2004)
Benny Morris discusses the new version of his famously controversial book, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, which has left him alienated from both the left and the right.

Jeffrey Rosen: The Softer Side of Ashcroft (March 12, 2004)
Jeffrey Rosen, the author of "John Ashcroft's Permanent Campaign" (April Atlantic), argues that it is not social conservatism but a quest for popular approval that drives John Ashcroft's public life.

Christopher Browning: An Insidious Evil (February 11, 2004)
Christopher Browning, the author of The Origins of the Final Solution, explains how ordinary Germans came to accept as inevitable the extermination of the Jews.

Matthew Miller: Let's Make a Deal (February 5, 2004)
Matthew Miller, the author of The Two Percent Solution, talks about the promise of the political center and the life we might find there.

Kenneth Pollack: Weapons of Misperception (January 13, 2004)
Kenneth M. Pollack, the author of "Spies, Lies, and Weapons: What Went Wrong," explains how the road to war with Iraq was paved with misleading and manipulated intelligence.

Diane Johnson: An American in Paris (September 10, 2003)
Diane Johnson, whose novels limn the cultural differences between France and America, talks about our "abiding fascination" with the French and their country.

Virginia Postrel: The Joy of Style (August 27, 2003)
Virginia Postrel, the author of The Substance of Style, argues that we should count ourselves lucky to be living in "the age of look and feel."

H. W. Brands: Ordinary People (August 7, 2003)
H. W. Brands argues that too much reverence for the Founding Fathers is unhealthy—and that it's time to take them down a notch or two.

Zoë Heller: Learning in Public (June 12, 2003)
Zoë Heller, the author of What Was She Thinking?, talks about testing out a new point of view, and how journalism prepared her for fiction.

A Conversation With Michael Kelly (June 3, 2003)
Michael Kelly, The Atlantic's editor at large and former editor, was killed in Iraq this April while on assignment for the magazine. This interview took place a month and a half before he died.

Robert Baer: Addicted to Oil (May 29, 2003)
Robert Baer, the author of "The Fall of the House of Saud," discusses the perils of our dependence on Saudi Arabia and its precious supply of fuel.

Azar Nafisi: The Fiction of Life (May 7, 2003)
Azar Nafisi, the author of Reading Lolita in Tehran, on the dangers of using religion as an ideology, and the freedoms that literature can bring.

Adrian Nicole LeBlanc: Bronx Story (April 24, 2003)
A conversation with Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, whose new book, Random Family, chronicles the struggles of an impoverished extended family in New York.

Cristina García:The Nature of Inheritance (April 11, 2003)
A conversation with Cristina García, whose new novel, Monkey Hunting, explores Cuban identity, immigrant life, and the way family history evolves.

John Murray:Caught Between Places (April 2, 2003)
A conversation with John Murray, a doctor-turned-writer whose characters are often searching to reconcile their new lives with the ones they've left behind.

Stephen Schwartz:The Real Islam (March 20, 2003)
In The Two Faces of Islam Stephen Schwartz argues that in order to appreciate the pluralist, tolerant side of Islam, we must confront its ugly, extremist side.

Richard Brookhiser: What Makes W. Tick? (March 11, 2003)
The historian and journalist Richard Brookhiser weighs in on George W. Bush—his management style, his mean streak, his religiosity, and his recovery from alcoholism.

Richard Price: Shades of Gray (February 26, 2003)
In his new novel, Samaritan, Richard Price returns to Dempsy, New Jersey—a world where "lines aren't so strictly drawn."

David Frum: The Real George Bush (February 12, 2003)
David Frum, a former presidential speechwriter and the author of The Right Man, gives an inside look at the character of George W. Bush.

Daniel Goldhagen: The Guilt of the Church (January 31, 2003)
Daniel Goldhagen, the author of A Moral Reckoning, calls upon the Catholic Church to face its legacy of anti-Semitism and its role in the Holocaust.

Barbara Dafoe Whitehead: In Search of Mr. Right (December 18, 2002)
The author of Why There Are No Good Men Left, discusses the challenges facing today's single women, and argues that the contemporary courtship system needs to be transformed.

Robert Dallek: Pulling Back the Curtain (November 18, 2002)
Presidential historian Robert Dallek discusses new revelations about JFK's serious health problems and his efforts to keep them hidden.

James Fallows: Proceed With Caution (October 10, 2002)
James Fallows argues that before getting ourselves into a war with Iraq, we must think long and hard about its possible consequences.

B. R. Myers: A Reader's Revenge (October 2, 2002)
B. R. Myers, the author of A Reader's Manifesto, argues that the time has come for readers to stand up to the literary establishment.

Philip Jenkins: Christianity's New Center (September 12, 2002)
Philip Jenkins, the author of "The Next Christianity" (October Atlantic), argues that most Americans and Europeans are blind to Christianity's real future.

Nick Cook: Into the Black (September 5, 2002)
Nick Cook, a respected military journalist, describes his foray into a hidden "black world" where powerful technologies of warfare are born.

Richard Rubin: Deep in the Heart of Dixie (July 31, 2002)
Richard Rubin, author of Confederacy of Silence, on his time in the Mississippi Delta, and the disquieting mix of geniality and racism he found there.

Garry Wills: The Loyal Catholic (July 24, 2002)
Garry Wills, the author of Why I Am a Catholic, talks about faith, scandal, and the importance of constructive criticism.

Steve Olson: History in a Cell (April 26, 2002)
Steve Olson, the author of Mapping Human History, retells the story of humanity—including the creation of different "races"—through the information encoded in our DNA.

Mark Bowden: It's Not Easy Being Mean (April 25, 2002)
Mark Bowden, the author of The Atlantic's May cover story, talks about the strange life of Saddam Hussein and why his downfall is inevitable.

Antonya Nelson: Angles of Prose (April 11, 2002)
Antonya Nelson, the author of Female Trouble, talks about her unsentimental take on the untidy worlds her characters inhabit.

Alex Beam: The Asylum on the Hill (January 4, 2002)
Alex Beam, the author of Gracefully Insane, probes the rich past of a mental hospital renowned for ministering to prominent, creative, and aristocratic patients.

Reuel Marc Gerecht: The Necessity of Fear (December 28, 2001)
Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former CIA spy in the Middle East, argues that the only way to douse the fires of Islamic radicalism is through stunning, overwhelming, military force.

Larry Thompson: War's Forgotten Faces (December 18, 2001)
Larry Thompson of Refugees International describes what life is like for the refugees of conflicts, old and new, in Afghanistan.

Alice Munro: Bringing Life to Life (December 14, 2001)
A conversation with Alice Munro, whose stories are fueled by her fascination with the way people portray their own lives.

Elinor Burkett: Back to School (November 28, 2001)
Elinor Burkett, who at age fifty-five became a member of the class of 2000, reports on high school today through a journalist's eyes.

William Langewiesche: Culture Crash (November 15, 2001)
A conversation with William Langewiesche, the author of "The Crash of EgyptAir 990," on the cultural reverberations of a seemingly straightforward airplane crash.

Ruben Martinez: The Hearts of Strangers (November 14, 2001)
Ruben Martinez, the author of Crossing Over, describes the Mexican migrant experience, and reminds native-born Americans that they too were once strangers in a strange land.

Robert D. Kaplan: The View From Inside (November 2, 2001)
Foreign correspondent Robert D. Kaplan on his days among the
mujahideen, the killing of Abdul Haq, and why the U.S. must not be afraid to be brutal.

Glyn Maxwell: Breath and Daylight (June 14, 2001)
John DeStefano talks with the poet and playwright Glyn Maxwell—author of Time's Fool and The Breakage—about Auden, Frost, and America's feud with form.

James Fallows: The Soul of a New Flying Machine (May 25, 2001)
A conversation with James Fallows, The Atlantic's national correspondent, whose new book, Free Flight, argues that the next generation of small planes could usher in a new age of travel.

Nicholson Baker: The Gutenberg Purge (May 10, 2001)
Eric McHenry talks with Nicholson Baker, author of Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper, about the value of old news and the long shelf life of the printed page.

Trezza Azzopardi: Out of Hiding (February 1, 2001)
A conversation with the author of The Hiding Place, a dark debut novel that casts new light on a province and a people.

Charles Simic: Seeing Things (January 10, 2001)
"Images, images, images"—for the Belgrade-born poet Charles Simic, they're the story of his life. Simic talks with Eric McHenry about his new memoir, A Fly in the Soup.

Eric Schlosser: Unhappy Meals (December 14, 2000)
Eric Schlosser, an award-winning investigative journalist, talks about his new book, Fast Food Nation, and the "dark side of the all-American meal."

Eduardo Galeano: "Words That Must Be Said" (November 30, 2000)
Eduardo Galeano, the author of Upside Down: A Primer for the Looking-Glass World, is one of Latin America's fiercest social critics. Yet he insists that language—its secrets, mysteries, and masks—comes before politics.

Diane Ravitch: Hard Lessons (November 1, 2000)
Diane Ravitch, the author of Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms, argues for a return to rigor and accountability.

Burkhard Bilger: The Unsung South (October 26, 2000)
Burkhard Bilger, the author of Noodling for Flatheads: Moonshine, Monster Catfish, and Other Southern Comforts, talks about the fine line between culture and caricature.

Kazuo Ishiguro: A Fugitive Past (October 5, 2000)
Kazuo Ishiguro—the author of novels such as The Remains of the Day, The Unconsoled, and now When We Were Orphans—talks about memory, desire, and a loss of innocence.

Ian Buruma: A Cosmopolitan Affair (September 27, 2000)
E-mailing from London, Ian Buruma discusses his new collection of essays, The Missionary and the Libertine, an eclectic anthology of cross-cultural encounter.

Robert Putnam: Lonely in America (September 21, 2000)
Robert Putnam, the author of Bowling Alone, argues that the time has come "to reweave the fabric of our communities."

Ahmed Rashid: Inside the Jihad (August 10, 2000)
Ahmed Rashid, the Pakistani journalist and author of Taliban, shares insights he has gained from years of unparalleled access to Afghanistan and its radical Taliban movement.

Chinua Achebe: An African Voice (August 2, 2000)
His 1958 novel, Things Fall Apart, marked a turning point for modern African literature. In his new book, Home and Exile, Chinua Achebe sees postcolonial cultures taking shape story by story.

Julia Alvarez: In the Name of the Homeland (July 19, 2000)
Julia Alvarez, the Dominican-born novelist and poet, talks about her new historical novel, In the Name of Salomé, and about her need to write the stories that are hardest to tell.

Richard Powers: Two Geeks on Their Way to Byzantium (June 28, 2000)
Richard Powers—a writer who connects technology, art, and politics as few others can—talks about his new novel, Plowing the Dark, and the age-old human search for the virtual and the eternal.

Sherman Alexie: American Literature (June 1, 2000)
Sherman Alexie—poet, novelist, short-story writer, Native American—talks about his new book, The Toughest Indian in the World, and strikes out at the "eagle-feathers school of Native literature."

Edna O'Brien: Passion's Progress (April 20, 2000)
Edna O'Brien talks about how her new book, Wild Decembers—in which heartache is prefigured by a tractor—fits in with her own "inner gnaw."

Susan Sontag: The Foreigner (April 13, 2000)
Susan Sontag—whose new novel, In America, has just been published—doesn't feel at home in New York, or anywhere else. And that's the way she likes it.

Malcolm Gladwell: Epidemic Proportions (March 29, 2000)
Malcolm Gladwell, the author of The Tipping Point, talks about Pokemon, Methodism, his friend Ariel's taste in Manhattan restaurants—and what these things could possibly have in common.

Jerome Groopman: A Doctor's Stories (March 8, 2000)
A conversation with Jerome Groopman, an acclaimed doctor, researcher, and writer whose new book, Second Opinions, offers a rare inside view of modern medicine.

Ian Frazier: An Idea of Freedom (January 5, 2000)
Ian Frazier talks about his new book, On the Rez, and what he's learned about the Oglala Sioux, American heroism, and the art of writing.

Amartya Sen: Humane Development (December 16, 1999)
Akash Kapur speaks with Amartya Sen, the Nobel Prize-winning economist and author of Development as Freedom.

Ellen Bryant Voigt: Song and Story (November 24, 1999)Steven Cramer interviews Ellen Bryant Voigt, a poet whose new collection of essays offers a defense of the lyric mode and a portrait of an uncommon reader's mind.

Mark Doty: Fallen Beauty (November 10, 1999)
The poet Mark Doty discusses his new memoir, Firebird, and his coming of age into queerness and art.

Wendy Kaminer: America the Irrational (November 3, 1999)
Wendy Kaminer, the author of Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials, sees a disturbing decline of reason in our public life, and warns of the consequences.

Leslie Epstein: A Cold, Comic Heart (October 20, 1999)
Leslie Epstein, the author of the new novel Ice Fire Water, talks about Hollywood, the Holocaust, and why his critics are nuts.

Nicholas Lemann: The Myth of Meritocracy (October 7, 1999)
In his new book, The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy, Nicholas Lemann argues that the structure of educational opportunity in America is inherently flawed and must be rebuilt.

Edward Said: Setting the Record Straight (September 22, 1999)
Edward Said, author of a new memoir, Out of Place, talks about Beethoven, the Oslo Accords, Arafat, and the "enormous fabrication of lies" printed in Commentary this month.

Witold Rybczynski: Landscape Artist (July 14, 1999)
Witold Rybczynski, the author of A Clearing in the Distance, talks about Frederick Law Olmsted, the importance of Central Park, and the shape of our urban and suburban landscapes.

Joseph Epstein: Not Your Regular Joe (June 30, 1999)
Joseph Epstein is the essayist's essayist. But with his latest book, Narcissus Leaves the Pool, he says it's time to light out for new territory.

David M. Kennedy: Our Finest Hours? (June 10, 1999)
David M. Kennedy, the author of Freedom From Fear, talks about America's era of crisis, and how the nation mastered the greatest challenges of the twentieth century.

Philip Levine: A Useful Poetry (April 8, 1999) Philip Levine, whose new collection of poems was published this month, talks about politics, history, autobiography, the successes and failures of language—and why poetry matters.

Wendy Lesser: Truth Enters In (March 24, 1999)
A conversation with Wendy Lesser, the editor of The Threepenny Review and author of the new memoir The Amateur, who says she'll take an autobiography over a biography anyday.

Jeffrey Tayler: Russia's Other World (March 10, 1999)
Jeffrey Tayler, the author of Siberian Dawn, tells of his 8,000-mile odyssey across Russia's coldest, most desolate landscapes.

Mary Anne Weaver: Islam Rising (February 17, 1999)
A conversation with Mary Anne Weaver, the seasoned foreign correspondent whose new book, A Portrait of Egypt: A Journey Through the World of Militant Islam, shows that there is much more to Islamic activism than guns and bombs.

Julian Dibbell: Virtual Reality Bites Back (January 28, 1999)
"It's not that cyberspace fails to resolve the social contradictions of the 'real world,'" Julian Dibbell writes, "but rather that it doesn't even resolve its own." An e-mail exchange with the author of My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World.

Mark Hertsgaard: Will We Survive? (January 21, 1999)
An interview with Mark Hertsgaard, a journalist whose new book, Earth Odyssey, tells of his six-year, round-the-world journey exploring the human side of environmental crisis.

Daniel Dennett: The Digital Philosopher (December 9, 1998)
Can robotics shed light on the human mind? On evolution? Daniel Dennett—whose work unites neuroscience, computer science, and evolutionary biology—has some provocative answers. Is he on to something, or just chasing the zeitgeist?

Stephen Budiansky: The Animal Point of View (December 9, 1998)
Stephen Budiansky, the author of If a Lion Could Talk, says that in order to truly understand animal intelligence, we need to move beyond our sentimental fascination with elephants that "weep" and gorillas that "save children."

Ethan Canin: How Did Your Life Turn Out? (November 25, 1998)
An interview with Ethan Canin, the author of the new novel For Kings and Planets, who believes the only story worth writing is the history of a human being.

Stephen Ambrose: Tell It Like It Was (November 12, 1998)
Steven Spielberg turned to him for advice on Saving Private Ryan. Now, Stephen Ambrose talks about his new book, The Victors—the culmination of his work on the Second World War.

Anne Fadiman: Coming to Life (October 28, 1998)
An interview with the writer and editor Anne Fadiman, whose new book, Ex Libris, proves what she has always suspected—that there is an essayist lurking inside her.

John Edgar Wideman: Body Language (October 7, 1998) What's behind the work of John Edgar Wideman, the author of the new novel Two Cities, is simple: if you're going to talk the talk, walk the walk.

Robert D. Kaplan: Manifest Destiny (September 16, 1998) An interview with Robert D. Kaplan, whose new book, An Empire Wilderness, explains why the impending demise of the United States is good news.

Andrew Todhunter: Fear of Falling (September 3, 1998) Andrew Todhunter talks about his new book, Fall of the Phantom Lord, about the rock climber Dan Osman, and examines the lure of putting one's life on the line.

Cullen Murphy: Eve's Bible (August 6, 1998) An interview with Cullen Murphy, whose new book, The Word According to Eve, explores the revolutionary implications of feminism's encounter with religion.

Roy Blount Jr.: Bittersweet (July 23, 1998)
In his new memoir, Be Sweet: A Conditional Love Story, Roy Blount Jr. goes looking for the source of his humor.

William Langewiesche: Sky Writing (June 30, 1998)
All writers have a point of view. For William Langewiesche—pilot, Atlantic correspondent, and author of Inside the Sky—it happens to be an aerial one.

The Adventures of Jane Smiley (May 28, 1998) An interview with the acclaimed author of A Thousand Acres (1991) and the new novel, The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton.

Patricia Williams: Speaking of Race (May 14, 1998)
Patricia Williams, the author of Seeing a Color-Blind Future, suggests that when it comes to the trauma of racism Americans have not yet learned how to speak.

Richard Rorty: The Next Left (April 23, 1998)
Richard Rorty, the eminent philosopher and author of Achieving Our Country, argues that the American Left, if it is to recapture its relevance, must take pride in its past.

Hans Koning: Being There (March 4, 1998)
Freedom fighter, anti-war activist, novelist, reporter—Hans Koning, the author of Pursuit of a Woman on the Hinge of History, reflects on the twentieth century.

Edward Ball: Inheriting Slavery (February 26, 1998) Edward Ball, the author of Slaves in the Family, set out to reckon with the legacy of his ancestors' plantations.

The World According to David Gelernter (January 29, 1998)
An interview with a computer scientist who argues that beautiful technology—and a return to traditional values—must show us the way forward.

Edward Sorel: Drawing Without a License (November 6, 1997)
His sharp-witted illustrations, instantly recognizable, have appeared in many of America's best-known magazines. Now, in a new book, Edward
Sorel looks back over thirty years of "unauthorized portraits."

Louis Auchincloss: The More the Merrier (October 15, 1997)
Louis Auchincloss has written fifty-four books in his eighty years. Now the author of The Atonement talks about Henry James, Edith Wharton, and a life of lawyering.

Steven Johnson: A Medium in Embryo (October 9, 1997)
Most of us take the computer interface for granted. But for Steven Johnson
it is a defining metaphor of our times—and a summons to the
metaphysical.

Michael Nash: Most Multimedia Sucks (June 5, 1997)
Is the golden age of multimedia already behind us? Michael Nash, a
visionary who helped raise the art of the interactive CD-ROM to new levels,
doesn't think so—despite his feeling that today "most multimedia
sucks."

James Carroll: The Story of My Life (April 24, 1997)
James Carroll talks about his memoir, An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War that Came Between Us,
winner of the 1996 National Book Award for non fiction.

Kai Krause: Artist at Play (April 16, 1997)
Kai Krause—whose graphic-design tools combine the power of
mathematics and computers with a childlike delight in sheer
playfulness—would bridge the divide between technology and art.

Suzanne Gordon: Cutting Down on Care (March 19, 1997)
In Life Support, Suzanne Gordon gives a first-hand account from the front-lines of nursing—a profession that is gravely threatened by the restructuring of our medical system.

Thomas Powers: The Numbers Game (February, 1997)
CIA analyst Sam Adams fought the intelligence establishment about its Vietnam policy like David fought Goliath. An interview with Thomas Powers, the editor of Adams's posthumous book, War of Numbers.

Barbara Dafoe Whitehead: What We Owe (February, 1997)
Dan Quayle is still right, argues Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, author of The Divorce Culture and a Democrat who has never voted Republican.

Paul Fussell: The Other Side of War (February, 1997) In Doing Battle: The Making of Skeptic, Paul Fussell—historian, literary critic, and veteran—wants to change the way Americans remember the Second World War.

Howard Cushnir: The Game's the Thing (December 21, 1996)Obsidian, the elaborate and much-anticipated CD-ROM adventure game, takes the genre that Myst defined to a new level. An e-mail exchange with Howard Cushnir, Obsidian's co-author.

Michael Joyce: The End of the Story (November 20, 1996)
Michael Joyce is one of the premier authors of hyperfiction in America. His
new work, Twilight, A Symphony, transcends the limits of narrative
and reveals the burden of infinite possibility.

William Langewiesche: The Desert Extreme (August, 1996)
William Langewiesche, author of Sahara Unveiled,
traveled 4,000 miles through the hottest, driest, and largest desert on
earth—and lived to tell about it.

Francis Davis: Bebop and Beyond? (July, 1996)
Francis Davis, author of Bebop and Nothingness: Jazz and Pop at the End
of the Century, talks about jazz in the '90s—its influences, rising
stars, and prospects for the future. Plus, Atlantic articles on jazz from as far back as 1922.